When I was first getting into the business of selling educational programs, a famous zero-down real estate guru asked me, “Do you know the thing people who take my courses want most?”
I had a sneaking suspicion I was about to get it wrong, but I gamely answered: “To be successful real estate investors?”
He laughed. “You’ve got a lot to learn, my friend.”
I took the bait. “So what do your customers want?”
“They want to avoid taking action.”
I told him I wasn’t sure I understood. He was kind enough to clarify. “Most of the people who take my courses and who will be buying your programs want to feel like they are on the road to success. But they don’t want that road to end. They like the journey. They fear the destination.”
“And why would that be?” I asked.
“To tell you the truth,” he said. “I don’t know. But I can tell you this. After our real estate students have gotten the knowledge they need to succeed, few of them get out there and get to work. Most of them just buy more programs. If they don’t buy them from us, they will buy them from someone else. So we sell them extra programs.”
“That’s sort of depressing,” I said.
“If you give one of my customers – someone who has completed his real estate education and is fully prepared to start investing profitably – a choice between actually getting to work and buying another course to learn more, he will buy the course.”
“Are they afraid of failing?”
“Could be that,” he said. “Could be they’re afraid of success. As I said, I don’t know.”
Since then I’ve thought a lot about this failure-to-get-started problem. I’ve read dozens of books and talked to many of my colleagues and posed the question to hundreds of my customers. The theories as to why people don’t take action are many and varied. The three that make most sense to me are:
• Lack of Confidence: People who haven’t yet been successful in life don’t believe they can be, even if they are fully prepared to succeed.
• Fear of Pain: Some people see taking action as work and work as a form of pain. These are usually people who have never experienced the pleasure of working on something they value.
• Laziness: Besides the fear of work, human beings are programmed to be lazy. Being lazy means trying to get what you want with the least amount of effort. Some people don’t take action because they want to find an easier way.
If these are the main reasons why so many people don’t take action when they are ready, what is the solution?
There’s no mystery to that. Behavioral scientists know that the way to change a person’s behavior is by motivating them through positive reinforcement. This is what B.F. Skinner had to say about it in A Brief Survey of Operant Behavior:
“It has long been known that behavior is affected by its consequences. We reward
and punish people, for example, so that they will behave in different ways. … Operant reinforcement not only shapes the topography of behavior, it maintains it in strength long after an operant has been formed. Schedules of reinforcement are important in maintaining behavior. If a response has been reinforced for some time only once every five minutes, for example, the rat soon stops responding immediately after reinforcement but responds more and more rapidly as the time for the next reinforcement approaches. … Reinforcers may be positive or negative. A positive reinforcer reinforces when it is presented; a negative reinforcer reinforces when it is withdrawn. Negative reinforcement is not punishment. Reinforcers always strengthen behavior; that is what ‘reinforced’ means.”
Positive reinforcement is a big part of my life. I reward myself constantly and for almost any sort of accomplishment, big and small. By attaching rewards to my desired behavior, I increase the likelihood that I will repeat that behavior in the future.
When I “master planned” my life for the first time, I had to spend some time thinking about how to reward myself. I gave myself all sorts of incentives for all sorts of objectives. Some of them worked. Some of them didn’t.
Some success coaches suggest big rewards for big accomplishments. You might, for example, reward yourself with a sports car when you make your first million dollars. Big goals like that never worked for me, because they were too far off in the future. What motivates me are short-term goals. And I have a feeling that short-term goals will be better for you, too.
Over the years, I developed a reward system that works very well for me. Here it is:
• I keep a daily list of every task I want to accomplish. When I complete each task, I cross it out (or change its color on my screen) to “signal” that I have accomplished it. This little gesture is like a tiny shot of adrenaline. It picks me up and gives me energy to attack my next objective.
• When I’m working at the office, I set an egg timer for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on my workload for the day. When it goes off, I get up from my chair, walk outside, and spend a minute or two stretching out my back. I’ve found that 30 to 60 minutes flies by – especially when I’m writing – and so these half-hour or hour-long periods seem very short.
• After I sprint in the morning, I reward myself with 10 to 15 minutes of yoga. Doing yoga might seem like more exercise to some, but to me it feels like a reward since it is so much more relaxing than sprinting.
• After completing my first half-hour of writing fiction or poetry in the morning, I reward myself with breakfast.
• After wrestling at noon, I treat myself with a tasty protein shake.
• At 5:30, I take my laptop to the cigar bar down the street, and work on my writing there for another two hours. When I walk in, they have an espresso and water waiting for me. I look forward to this. I’m still doing work, but it’s a reward because I’m doing it in a new place.
• After two hours of writing at the cigar bar, I reward myself by going home, breaking open a good bottle of wine, and having dinner with K.
• If I do any work in the evening, I reward myself afterward by reading a good book or watching a movie.
• I reward myself every evening by climbing into a great bed with silky sheets and a pillow that fits my head perfectly.
These rewards, as you can see, are pretty mundane. But that’s the thing about rewards. They don’t have to be big or even special. They need only be enjoyable.
It would be easy for me to consider these little things – my breakfast, the stretching, the protein shake – as simply an ordinary part of my ordinary day. But by looking at them differently, by seeing them as pleasurable rewards for specific, desired behavior, they motivate me.
I think that is the key – identifying little pleasures you already have in your life and using them as behavior-changing rewards. It’s very easy to do once you recognize that these little pleasures are blessed gifts. Truly speaking, you are lucky to be able to enjoy them. Be happy about that. Use them pragmatically.
[Ed. Note: Giving yourself small rewards can help you make the achievement of big goals easier and more pleasurable. And before you know it, you'll be accomplishing things you always dreamed of. Discover how you can get more specific advice - including success secrets, actionable techniques, and tons of motivation - on how to turn your dreams into reality right here.
As a special thank you to our best customers, Michael has started a new VIP service in which he gives insider business-building advice usually reserved for his private clients - a twice-weekly newsletter called Ready Fire Aim: The Michael Masterson Dispatch. If you have bought an ETR product or attended a conference and are not receiving Ready Fire Aim, please let us know by sending an e-mail to Michael@ETRfeedback.com.]
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It is highly motivating, i shall adopt this technique of rewarding myself for every little goal i accomplish. I would strongly adopt maintaining the daily task check list which would be such a pleasurable experience to me. In fact once in a while i do have this habit of writing down daily task list and following through the whole day, but its not a regular thing for me. it gives me immense satsifaction for me as the tasks get accomplished. Thanks for your valuable writeup.
Regards,
Baseeth
This article brought back many memories from my time as a coach to beginning stockbrokers. I found that their struggles were not from lack of ability but from a lack of activity. Fear of success is an obstacle for people just like the fear of failure. It seems however, that fear of the unknown is how its categorized because then no one has to figure out if its success or failure that frightens us more.
Thank you! Yes, it is good to appreciate the small pleasures. We really are privileged to have these. Thank you too for ETR. I’m a writer. This site is one of the firsts to introduce me to a whole new way of thinking. It’s old hat now — 2+ years later; even though somehow I feel I’m still sitting on the fence. “Old hat” in that I’ve learned so much. It’s incredible.
Rewarding myself have help me to achieve my goals.The higher the goal the bigger the reward.I’m looking forward to the day I reward myself with a big mansion.
Thanks for your refreshing article!
Thanks. I needed to hear and be reminded of the point of breaking the day or project down into simple rewards. I appreciate how this keeps you focused, motivated and fresh. I like how you demonstrated the need for a change of physical environment, activities and simple comforts. I will implement some changes. The following is a slightly different story about a motivating influence in my life.
I am 56 years of age and was very resistant to embrace computer technology. The internet, e-mail, creating a website are still pretty new territory. My wife helps and I must drive her a little crazy. My desire to compete in a stock trading contest on CNBC pushed me over. I had to use a computer and the internet. I wanted to know how other people found all their information and how to invest and trade wisely. Most of my sources were on-line. I read the free newsletters that would like for me to purchase other newsletters. Between these and CNBC and Fox and Forbes, etc. I got to learn how other people think and what they believe – in light of the current news.
Prior to the elections I begin to think about and write my own notes on paper regarding the financial, housing, energy, and employment problems. I used other peoples’ ideas mixed with my views. I created a website for the purpose of putting down some of these ideas and eventually communicating with others who may have similar concerns. I was frustrated with the candidates’ views. Although intelligent they seemed to be scientifically and technologically illiterate and out of touch with the real world that didn’t live in their fishbowl. The congress and executive branch pontificate their professorial views while tone deaf to the need to balance a checkbook. They erect roadblocks to business when they should be removing them. They are a great hindrance to success in our time.
Consider this analogy. If America is Snow-white then Congress and the executive branch is the witch lulling the maiden to sleep and keeping her removed from the prince. The prince is a package including all our Constitutional rights remaining intact without a slippery preclusion or two. Free enterprise and the fair practice of capitalism has to be included. And none of this will work without putting God in the center without restrictions.
The previous viewpoint is an example of how and why I have been motivated to move into an area of the unknown in spite of impatience and perceived discomfort. I entered the foreign land of the computer, internet, e-mail, creating a website and communicating with people I can’t see and don’t know who can’t see and don’t know me. I am still learning to navigate, but at least I’m learning. onefire.webs.com is the website. Thanks for listening.